Chương 52: Chapter 45 - The space elevator lobby is a great spot for a date

My brain did two things in quick succession. First, it confirmed what my eyes were showing me. Silver dress, blonde hair, crimson eyes, a face that existed to ruin the concentration of every living thing that looked at it. Cassandra. Standing in a hallway inside the tower, on floor twenty-eight, by a window overlooking a city she had no business being anywhere near. Second, it crashed. She turned from the window.

The light from the city below caught her dress and her hair and everything else about her that I'd been trying not to think about for the past three floors. She looked at me, and the corner of her mouth curved.

"You sure have kept me waiting." Behind me, Ren and Kael stopped walking. I could feel their stares. Ren's was measured and analytical. Kael's was the kind that came with a raised eyebrow and Venn's ears rotating like satellite dishes. Cassandra didn't give me time to fumble it. She walked toward us, heels clicking on the metal floor, and stopped at my side. Her hand found the crook of my arm, settling there with natural ease. She looked at Ren, then at Kael, and smiled.

"I'm Cassandra, Damian's girlfriend, and the reason he's climbing up here." The word landed. Girlfriend. That was very much not the stage of the relationship where I thought we were. But I also wasn't going to start a discussion about it. I didn't miss a beat. My hand found the small of her back.

"She worries."

"Evidently," Ren said. His expression gave away nothing, but his gaze flicked between us with the efficiency of someone cataloguing a new variable.

"Ren." He offered a short bow.

"Kael." Kael's eyes were doing a different kind of assessment. He'd noticed the lack of gear, the impractical dress, the fact that she was standing in a hallway that required passing through a qualification trial to reach. On his shoulder, Venn's fur had shifted toward a pale, washed-out grey, and its tail curled tighter around Kael's neck. The creature leaned up to Kael's ear, soundlessly whispering something. A smile crept onto Cassandra's face.

"What a lovely little companion. What is she saying about me?"

"He's nervous around new people," Kael said.

"And curious if you know about his summons. And what he does with them." Oh shit. I kept a calm face, acting as if nothing was happening. The smile twisted into a smirk.

"With which one?" Kael turned slightly red, looking away.

"The one that casts the red fire spells." I rolled my eyes.

"Those are baseless accusations." Venn, the little snitch, shook its head, motioning at its nose.

"Anyways," Ren said, stepping into a hallway.

"We are after a trial, so we need to get a room and booze. A lot of booze. Need to enjoy the win while it lasts."

"But of course." Cassandra nudged me forward. I headed on, maintaining my composure. Cassandra's hand was on my arm, and her heat was bleeding through my sleeve, and my brain was still catching up to the fact that she was here. The platform's lobby was larger than it looked from the hallway. A wide, open space with panoramic windows, high ceilings, and the kind of ambient lighting that shifted color to match the time of day.

Several seating areas, a bar that curved along one wall, and a reception desk for what looked like short-stay accommodations. A few other climbers occupied tables in the distance, but the place was mostly empty. Above us, the elevator shaft climbed into the pseudo-space sky, a thread of dark metal vanishing into haze. Below, through the windows, New Haven's city lights spread in concentric rings, a clean and sterile carpet of civilization. We took a table by the windows. Ren ordered something local.

Kael ordered the same. Cassandra requested red wine. I took whatever Ren was having. The drinks arrived in thin glass vessels that hummed faintly at the rim. The liquid inside was amber, slightly luminescent, and tasted like someone had distilled a forest fire into something drinkable. Not bad.

"To clearing the trial," Ren said, raising his glass. He looked at me.

"And to whatever the hell happened in that mana chamber."

"The mana chamber was straightforward," I said.

"You exploded the orb."

"It was fragile. They shouldn't have made it out of glass." Kael's mouth twitched. We drank. For Ren and Kael, this was a celebration. They'd been stuck at the trial for weeks. Six attempts, Ren had said. Six rounds of walking into that room and watching the mana infusion test drain their reserves dry, or getting rolled into a combat stage they couldn't pass. Now they were through, and the relief was physical. Ren sat looser than I'd seen him, the katana propped against the table instead of across his lap.

Kael had pushed his hood down. Even Venn had settled into a relaxed coil on the seat beside him, though the creature still kept one dark eye on Cassandra. For me, the celebration lasted about one drink. Then it became something else. Cassandra sat beside me, close enough that her knee touched mine under the table. She smelled of roses and an overheated furnace.

The silver dress caught the ambient light, and every time she leaned forward to speak, her hair fell past her shoulder in a way that made my attention do things I wasn't proud of. She was good with them. Not performing, not working the room. Just naturally present, asking Ren about the trials with genuine interest, giving Kael a look of dry amusement when he described how he'd nearly gotten crushed by the boss construct.

When Ren recounted my mana-orb moment, Cassandra's eyes slid to me with the particular smile she reserved for when I did something exactly as stupid as she expected.

"He's always been like this," she said.

"Overwhelming force applied without a shred of subtlety."

"I have subtlety."

"And yet everything around you ends up blown up into pieces."

"Subtle pieces." Kael buried a laugh in his drink. Even Ren's stoic composure cracked enough for a smirk. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"So," Ren said.

"Where are you two from?" He took a long swig, glancing at me.

"You feel like a local, but she's not." He motioned with his head at Cassandra.

"Touché," Cassandra said.

"We are climbers from a world called Earth."

"That must be really far," Kael said.

"How do you get here?"

"I have my ways." She smirked a bit.

"Why are you two climbing the tower? Every floor trial is more difficult than the last, and as far as I understand the concept, if you die during a trial, you die." Kael and Ren exchanged a glance.

"We need to get to 29," Ren said.

"We have spent our lives on 27, watching the space above. Floor 29 is the space station atop the elevator. We want to see what it's like."

"And he's got an ex-girlfriend in there." Kael motioned with his head at Ren.

"She left him because he couldn't clear the trials." Ren rolled his eyes.

"We aren't drunk enough for that." We all snorted. Underneath the banter, every part of my attention tracked Cassandra. The angle of her body toward mine. The way her finger traced the rim of her wine glass, slow and absent, a gesture that meant she was thinking about something she wasn't saying. The warmth radiating from her leg against mine, hotter than any human had the right to be. She called herself my girlfriend. In front of strangers, without hesitation, without irony. And she hadn't corrected it.

The third round came. The conversation drifted into lighter territory. Kael talked about Venn, how he'd found the creature on a lower floor, how it had refused to leave his shoulder since. Ren described the city below, the time they'd spent in New Haven before finding the trial, and the local customs they'd learned. I listened, contributed the occasional remark, and let Cassandra's heat do its work on my composure. About an hour in, Kael stretched, cracking his neck.

"I'm going to find a room before my legs remember how much they hate me." Ren nodded.

"We should rest. Tomorrow, we figure out how to climb up." He got up.

"The hotel's next door. They always have rooms." They left. Venn still glared at me disapprovingly from Kael's shoulder. Ren looked at me.

"Same time in the morning. Lobby."

"I'll be here." He paused, eyes flicking to Cassandra. Whatever he was thinking, he kept it behind a composed facade.

"It was good meeting you."

"Likewise." Cassandra's smile was warm and measured. Kael gave a half-wave with two fingers. Venn's ears rotated toward Cassandra one last time, flat and wary, before Kael turned the corner. Then it was just us. The lobby quieted. The ambient lighting had shifted to a deeper blue, matching whatever passed for night on this floor. Through the panoramic windows, the city below dimmed, its concentric rings softening to a low, golden haze.

Above, the elevator shaft vanished into a sky full of visible asteroids and distant ships. Cassandra sipped her wine. The mask had thinned the moment the others left. Not gone, never gone, but thinner. I could see the tension in her shoulders, the deliberate calm of her hands, the way she looked at me like she was checking whether I was real.

"You sure know how to introduce yourself," I opened with. She set the glass down.

"You didn't seem to mind."

"You said it without hesitation." A smile spread over her face.

"And is there a problem with that?" I mirrored it.

"We must look like a natural couple, because they bought it without asking questions." Her crimson eyes held mine.

"Apparently." The silence stretched between us. Not uncomfortable. The kind that carried weight, the kind that dared the other person to break it with something honest. I broke it.

"You told me you can't enter the tower using the pods. You weren't lying. I can also recognize just about any spiritual projection type of a spell." She arched an eyebrow.

"How did you learn that?"

"Let's just say my mentor has a penchant for not showing up in person. Ever." Cassandra chuckled.

"You are correct. I am here in person. In fact, I am likely the only person in the world capable of entering the tower by myself." And she came for me. That made my heartbeat speed up.

"So," she said, "For how long do you plan to sulk here in the tower?"

"Until I recover Sarah." She clicked her tongue.

"You say it with such conviction it's almost making me jealous." I sighed.

"She got kidnapped while on my team. I can't let that slide."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… do not insult my intelligence with such feeble lies."

"It's not a lie." She sipped from her glass.

"But it isn't the full truth, either."

"To be honest, I am not looking forward to the consequences of my floor 25 stunt."

"As you should not." She chuckled.

"I have overheard numerous arguments about whether that should be classified as genocide or only a serious war crime. The Church is especially happy about the indiscriminate killing of civilians. The topic of jurisdiction is also funny, as in should you be tried in the Hague, and if not, then where?" I needed a stronger drink. I ordered one.

"That's why I'm liking it in the tower now."

"You don't have to be so afraid." The smile that formed on her face contained plenty of venom.

"If they shove you into a prison, I'll buy you out as my personal attendant." Lovely.

"Why are you really here?" She looked at me. The mask flickered. Underneath it, for just a second, I saw the woman from the dome, the one who'd said please like it cost her something she couldn't afford.

"To experience something new."

"That sounds… old."

"I know." Her shoulders slightly slumped.

"I am about your age. And yet I live the life of an old woman. Everything in a routine. Everything mapped out, pre-prepared, all arranged in a beautiful, golden cage, where nothing unexpected or exciting happens." And then I came around. Started hitting on her, wildly out of my position because I didn't know the social distance between us. In retrospect, I came in as a fresh recruit of Golden Sands and immediately started hitting on the organization's CTO. We sat like that for a while. Not talking.

Just sitting, her hand in mine, the city glowing below us, the elevator shaft climbing above. It was the closest thing to a date we'd ever had. No workstation between us, no pods humming in the background, no mask to reassemble when someone walked in. Just us. In the tower. Where neither of us was supposed to be. She was the first to move. She turned toward me, pulling her hand from mine, and placed it against my chest.

The heat hit me immediately, searing through my shirt, a brand that settled somewhere behind my ribs. Her crimson eyes caught what little light remained.

"You know," she said after a while.

"I was kind of hoping you would use that as an opening to do something unexpected."

"Unexpected or inappropriate?"

"Both. I live on inappropriate." I reached over, grabbed her waist, and pulled her onto my lap.

"Like this?" She straddled me with her thighs, seating herself face to face, her arms wrapping around my neck.

"Yes, exactly like this. What happens in the tower stays in the tower." I smiled.

"That sounds more than a little suspicious. What are you hiding?"

"Terrible things and secrets." She chuckled.

"The world is full of little rules and regulations and limits. A billion different little restrictions that say what I can or can't do. But here in the tower, none of them matter. This place doesn't have the rules we have at home."

"That did not help."

"And here I thought you'd understand the best. Did anyone ever discuss with you whether summoning demons was good or bad? They all knew it was bad before you were born. Your power was judged and sentenced before you ever even performed it. Was that fair?" I got where she was coming from. But...

"That's how human society functions."

"Old human societies had wildly different rules. They function as well." She clicked her tongue.

"In ancient Babylon, scholars would swarm around you to study your summons. To learn of demons and Hell and the Void. The rules that forever sentence you into an outcast didn't exist back then." Well... that would have been nice indeed. I leaned in, closing my eyes. She kissed me. Her nails found my nape, digging them into my flesh as she pulled me into her. This wasn't like the last kiss. This was much hungrier, much longer, much fiercer. My arm wrapped tighter around her waist, pulling her closer.

No resistance, no power play, no calculation behind it, only her tongue all over my mouth. When we finally pulled apart, she didn't go far. Her forehead rested against mine. Eyes closed, breath warm on my lips. Her nails were still digging into my neck.

"You're way too good at this."

"I'm way too good at everything." She blushed faintly.

"Not tonight. Our relationship isn't supposed to be happening. It really, really, really shouldn't be happening." I smirked.

"Because a lady like you should never be involved with a filthy war criminal like me?"

"Genocidal war criminal." She smirked back, her eyes catching a vicious glint.

"If I ever again hear that things got intimate between you and any of your succubi, I will seal her into a jar. I am terribly jealous." That little snitch…

"I understand."

"You better. Or there'll be consequences." She kissed me again, breaking my lip with her teeth, the blood dripping into the long, ferocious kiss. She finally detached.

"I need to go." I smiled.

"I know."

"And you should also know that this is a secret." With a wave of her hand, she tore a rift into reality. My eyes widened. Was that a portal? She walked into the tear. It sealed behind her. Well, fuck. Teleportation was impossible. Portals didn't exist. Not unless one had a divine bloodline that allowed one to break this rule of reality. My ability to summon demons was inherited from Lucifer himself. That was why no one else could replicate it. I shook my head, paid, and headed to my room. I had to talk to Elsha.